Mermaid Dreams
by LGCoffeeAddict
Summary: Ned finds a suggestive photo of Olive in a mermaid outfit and finds himself dreaming of more than just Chuck.
1. Chapter 1

Mermaid Dreams

by GiGi

**A/N: Hey, I noticed there were no Pushing Daisies fanfics so I decided to be the first! Tell me what you think!**

Chapter 1

Ned reached under the counter to get a plate when his hands brushed against something wooden. Placing the plate on the counter, he pulled out a pie box...with pie in it. What was this doing underneath the counter? Ned examined the box to find the addressee and found an envelope.

_To Lily and Vivian_

Chuck's aunts? Why would they order from the Pie Hole? Curiosity got the better of Ned. He opened the envelope.

Inside was a picture...of Olive? Even weirder, she was wearing a mermaid outfit...an outfit whose neckline could hardly be named so. Worse, she was slightly bent over with her arms going to one side, making her...b-breasts pop out even more.

At the bottom of the photo, someone--Olive, most likely--had written in a very feminine hand, "See? You've inspired me so much already. Don't stop now," with a smiley face next to it.

Ned's eyes went back to the...prominence...in the photo. Had she always had such large br--body parts?

Only when the bell above the door jingled announcing another customer did Ned realized he just spent the last five minutes ogling Olive. His_employee_! But he was with Chuck and she was his employee, too. But she was supposed to be dead so it's not like she could press charges for sexual harassment like Olive could if the relationship went sour.

Never mind that. What about Chuck?

Shit.

Stuffing the picture back into the envelope and replacing the box where it was, Ned tried to resume his work as if it were any ordinary day and not a day where he was attracted to Olive.

Wait. He was _attracted_ to Olive?

**8D**

"Chuck, are you sure this will help anymore than it has the past two months?" Olive asked her new friend. "I don't think the pies have helped so far."

"Ugh, their bodies may have become used to the mood stabilizer. Maybe I should try another one," Chuck muttered as if to herself.

"Mood stabilizer?" Olive repeated and watched as Chuck's eyes went wide once she realized she'd said it aloud. "When do they take a mood stabili--oh my God. You put it in the pie?!" she exclaimed, hardly waiting for Chuck's guilty nod before continuing, "No wonder you always ask if they ate their pie."

"Well, come on, Olive. It's the only way I can help my aunts. Please tell me you'll keep going there," Chuck pleaded.

"Of course I'll keep going, but at least tell me when I'm drugging your family so I know."

"Thank you."

**8D**

_Ring ring!_

Ned hurried to answer the phone, nearly tripping across his entire apartment on his way there. "Hello?"

"Ned?" A high voice came through the phone.

"Olive!" Ned squeaked, his voice going up an octave or two. Clearing his throat, he said in a much more masculine voice, "Olive, what's up?"

"My car just broke down."

"..."

"Ugh," Olive sighed over the phone at having to spell it out for him. "Can you please come and pick me up? And soon? It's starting to rain."

Oh. No. NO NO NO I CAN'T PICK YOU UP! I'M WITH CHUCK!

"Sure, where are you?" The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Mentally slapping himself, he wrote down where she was and left the apartment.

**8D**

Pulling up in front of Olive's car, Ned got out and popped the hood of her Mini-Cooper. He tried not to notice that, in the rain, Olive's dress clung to her body in a more than suggestive way and was a little see-through. She obviously didn't notice, because she hugged Ned, declaring her gratitude for him.

This was going to take a while.

**A/N: So what do you think? Should I keep going with this story? Please review and tell me what you think!**


	2. Work

Mermaid Dreams

by GiGi

**A/N: Hey, I noticed there were no Pushing Daisies fanfics so I decided to be the first! Tell me what you think**

Chapter 2: Work

**A/N: So, yeah. It's been like 6 months since I started this story. I'm so sorry! I really have no excuse since I've started three other fics since this one, not to mention finished one of those! So here's Chapter 2. This is just a short little fluffy chapter. Not much going on but entertaining, hopefully!  
**

Back in his apartment, Ned fell onto his bed, head spinning. "I shouldn't be thinking about her like this," he muttered to himself. "It's not right. It's not _decent_!"

"What's not decent?" Chuck's voice rang through the room like an alarm bell. Ned used to be a more introverted kind of guy, and now he was lying on his bed, mentally kicking himself for being such a blabbermouth.

"The last pie I made." The lie just rolled of his tongue. When had he become such a natural at lying? That was a bad thing, wasn't it?

"Oh, okay." Chuck smiled at him and blew him a kiss before climbing into bed. "Goodnight."

"Night," Ned muttered. Night. That meant morning would come, and that meant work.

Oh, God, how was he supposed to face Olive without his face turning bright red?

_I guess only morning will tell_, he thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep.

**8D**

Olive blew into The Pie Hole in her short green waitress uniform. Was that dress always so short? She had extremely long legs for her height, and was more than well endowed, a fact which Ned had discovered from the photo.

"Ned?" Olive was in front of him now, waving a hand in his face.

Had he seriously just checked her out? The thought made Olive giddy as she watched his face turn the slightest shade of red. She would have missed it had she not been searching for it.

What did this mean? Was he falling for her? Was he just appreciating her looks?

Hell, she'd take either.

But what had changed his mind?

"Ned?" she asked again. "You in there?" She rapped her knuckles against his forehead, which finally seemed to snap him out of his trance.

"Ow!" Ned exclaimed, both hands going to his forehead. But, truth to tell, they were there more to shield his glowing face than to nurse his now aching head. He was certain he felt a shock when she touched him. It was like the kind he got when bringing someone back to life.

Was she bringing him back to life...metaphorically speaking?

_Interesting_...he mulled. "Did you need something, O-Olive?" Hopefully, Olive didn't notice the slight catch in his voice.

"Just wondering if you were okay. You're acting kinda funny," she remarked, but before he could make an excuse for his odd behavior she had already run off when she saw Chuck.

That day was filled with awkward run-ins and constant blushes on Ned's part. He didn't even act this way around Chuck, his dead _girlfriend._ Ironically enough, girlfriend carried more weight than dead.

Ned began to treasure his newfound talent for lies as both Chuck and Olive kept asking what on earth was wrong with him. Apparently, according to Olive, he was acting like "a big mouth billy bass without the big mouth."

Where she got _that_ expression, he couldn't even begin to wonder.

_I don't know how long I can handle being around her every single day. _Ned didn't like the idea. Olive was a great waitress. She was efficient and always made the customers smile with her natural cheery and bubbly demeanor. But if something went wrong in Ned's brain--some nerve went some place it shouldn't have--and he did something he shouldn't, that could be the end of that. So he had to end it. With one of them. Which one?

If he ended it with Olive, either he'd have to fire her or she'd quit.

But if he ended it with Chuck, she might kill herself by bitch-slapping him or something. She always did like to end with a big finish.

Damn it.

**A/N: It's short, but I've already updated another fic today, so I'm written out. I'm going to have a nice long sleep now so I have more energy to write more tomorrow. Review please!**


	3. Rubber Gloves

Mermaid Dreams

A **Pushing Daisies **fic by Gigi

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pushing Daisies.**

Chapter 3: Rubber Gloves

**A/N: So I'm really ashamed of myself. I haven't updated this in two years. I'm sorry! I'm going to try to finish this. I promise! Wish me luck!**

Ned was sitting alone in his storage room, surrounded by all his dead fruit, reminders of what had gotten him in this position in the first place.

The one thing Ned despised above all else was a love triangle. He never enjoyed them while watching TV, nor while reading a book. He _definitely_ didn't enjoy them when his friends tried to make him decide for them. And now, here he was, stuck right in the middle of one.

"I'm screwed," Ned moaned, banging the back of his head on the door.

Suddenly, the door opened and sent Ned sprawling on the ground as Olive said, "Hello?" She looked down at the now lying down Ned. "Ned, what are you doing here?"

Ned couldn't speak. He was too mortified to look away from what he could see just by looking straight up. His head had fallen right in front of Olive's long, lean legs, and that meant he could see up her short green dress.

"Ned!" Olive barked, squatting down to gently slap his cheek, making sure he was conscious. "Ned, you there?"

Shaking himself out of his stupor, Ned bolted so he was standing and prayed his cheeks weren't flushed again. "Yeah, Olive, I'm…I'm just fine," he insisted. "I think I have to go make a delivery. I'll see you later." Still avoiding eye contact, he rushed past the petite blonde waitress and grabbed his rubber gloves, which were resting on the counter next to the sink.

"Um, Ned?" Olive's high-pitched voice halted the tall pie maker in his tracks, just a few feet away from his freedom.

He refused to turn around. "Yes, Olive?"

"Why do you need rubber gloves to make a pie delivery?"

Ned glanced down at the offending yellow gloves in his hands. With a forced chuckle, he turned around and tried to look as innocent as possible as he let another lie trip off his tongue. "The guy who ordered it is kind of a germophobe. This is the only way he agrees to eat the pie."

Olive cocked her head to the side. Was it just her imagination, or did Ned's voice just go up an octave? "Okay," she accepted, dazed. Something was off about him. As Ned slipped on the gloves and walked out of the room, Olive followed him quietly. She watched as he grabbed Chuck away from having just served a customer and gently drag her to the back of the shop.

Ever so softly, Olive tiptoed just close enough so she could hear their conversation, hiding just around the corner of a brick wall. She noticed Ned was still wearing his rubber gloves as he tenderly gripped Chuck's bare wrist. _So he still can't touch her_, she thought to herself. _Is she really _that_ allergic to him?_

"Ned, what's wrong?" she heard Chuck ask.

"Why are your aunts ordering pies from here?" Ned just short of demanded.

Olive saw Chuck stiffen in surprise, a feeling Olive herself mirrored. How did Ned know? "How'd you find out?" Chuck nearly echoed Olive's thoughts.

"I found the box waiting to go out underneath the counter," Ned stated. "Why is Olive so close to them?" Olive froze, holding her breath.

"What?"

"There was a…picture of Olive attached to the box," he confessed. "It was of her dressed as a mermaid, and she had written some cheerful note along with it to help inspire them." Chuck shifted nervously on her feet. "What is she trying to inspire them to do?"

"I just want them to be happy again, Ned," Chuck pleaded. "Olive is doing me a favor by trying to get them back in the water again."

"But _why_?" Ned pressed. If Olive didn't know any better, she'd go so far as to say Ned looked…_frazzled_.

"Because they've been holed up in that house with nothing but their own misery since I died!" Chuck burst out, causing Olive eyes to widen to an impossible size. It was a miracle she managed to control the gasp that threatened to burst from her at that moment. She didn't sound as if she had faked her death, which was what Olive had been lead to believe. Chuck sounded as if she really _did_ die. Chuck was _dead_? How did that work? "I needed them to move on and be happy again. They cared for me so much, and I can't bear to watch them waste away. Olive is helping me with that."

"Fine, but did she really have to dress up like _that_ to do it?" he persisted in a strangled voice. Unbidden, the vision of Olive in a revealing mermaid's outfit rose up in his mind, causing a very noticeable blush to flood his cheeks.

Chuck definitely saw that. She stepped back and crossed her arms in a considering manner. "_That's_ what this is about," she observed. Olive's hand clenched on the brick in front of her. Ned was freaking out like this over _her_?

"What do you mean?" Ned's eyes flickered away from Chuck's guiltily as he shoved his gloved hands in his front pockets. He seemed almost caged.

"Ned, do you like Olive?" Chuck asked delicately, sending Olive's heart thumping and her stomach all the way up into her throat.

"Chuck, _you're_ my girlfriend," he insisted.

"That wasn't my question."

Ned looked lost. Finally, he dropped his head and made his confession to the ground. "Lately, I've been feeling…something…for Olive," he admitted. Olive's heart stopped at hearing those words. "I don't know what, if it's just attraction or something deeper. But I don't want her to quit, and I don't want to lose you. I…just don't know what to do about any of it."

Olive didn't hear whatever Chuck said in response. She was too busy running away as quietly as possible. She kept it up until she was in the back storage room, not paying any attention to the fact that dead fruit surrounded her. She slid down to the floor with her back against the door and took deep, slow breaths.

Ned had a thing for her. Ned very possibly _liked_ her. A smile bloomed on the blonde's face, a brighter and more ecstatic smile than she's ever had before. All hope was not lost on Operation: Ned + Olive. No, his overheard confession just made Olive feel like she could fly to the moon and back.

**A/N: So I tried to make it a little longer to make up for my abysmal updating habits. I really do hope to finish this, so please, if you liked it, REVIEW!**


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